Jerusalem, Dec 30, 2012 - The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, amember of the triumvirate of Guardians of the Christian Holy Places,has voiced grave fears over the threat of the erosion of its historicand traditional rights in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

The rights and privileges that are the legacy of the Armenians areindelibly inscribed within the tenets of a Status Quo that has been inplace since the Ottoman administration of the land.

But recent developments in Bethlehem, involving its sister Guardian,the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (with the Latin Custodia forming thethird member of the triumvirate), are threatening to seriously impacton Armenian rights, church officials claim.

The Patriarchate has lodged an urgent call for a return to the StatusQuo that has governed relations between the churches, and withgovernments, ever since its promulgation in the 19th Century.

The Guardians, as well as the dozen other Christian denominations ofthe Holy Land, are bound by the tenets of the set of agreementsthrashed out by the Ottoman Sultans with the aim of safeguardingChristian rights and avoiding internecine clashes.

While not perfect, the Status Quo, outlined in a 1929 documententitled `The Status Quo in the Holy Places' by L.A.G. Cust, anofficial of the British Mandate of Palestine, seems to have served theChristians well over the centuries.

Departures from the spirit of the agreement are rare, and any that dooccur are mostly of a temporary nature, meant to accommodate a one-offevent, agreed to by the parties concerned.

But according to the Armenians, there have been some seriousinfractions recently, with unpalatable results.

To impartial Western observers, the sweeping of a neighbor's tile, orthe movement of a ladder from one part of a wall to another, may seemtrivial in the cosmic order of things, but to the owner of the tile orwall, in the troubled Holy Land, the action is viewed as anunwarranted encroachment on its territorial rights.

The Armenian Patriarchate says the latest breach concerns the annualcleaning arrangements within the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, jointly`owned' with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

Conflicts over the threat of territorial encroachment have been afestering wound for the Armenians for years, culminating in anincident in December 2007 when the Greeks unilaterally `imposed' someamendments on the cleaning process.

The Armenians charge that the Greeks had decided to move a ladder`three places' during the annual cleaning of the church.

As things have stood for years, the ladder is placed in the (northern)Armenian section of the church, and would be used during the cleaningprocess, to reach the upper walls belonging to the Greeks.

The Armenians promptly objected to this variation of the Status Quo,pointing out that the ladder stays only in one designated place duringthe cleaning chore. They also wanted to be around when the Greeksstart their cleaning.

The Greeks were adamant and a scuffle broke out, captured graphicallyon YouTube.

The next year, to avoid a recurrence of the clashes, PalestinianAuthority Minister for Christian Affairs Ziad Bandak, brought the twosides to a negotiating table and succeeded in hammering out anagreement allowing the ladder to be moved twice only.

The Armenians considered the change a `one-off' to cover the 2008annual cleaning arrangements only, and said it should in no way beconstrued as a permanent amendment to the standing protocols of theStatus Quo.

The Greeks, supported by the Palestinian Authority, whose PresidentialCommittee for the Christians is composed overwhelmingly of OrthodoxGreeks, with not a single Armenian aboard [the Armenians point out],thought otherwise, and attempted to clean the Armenian section of thechurch as well, and another scuffle broke out, necessitating policeintervention.

The Armenians considered the Greek move null and void and demanded areinstitution of the Status Quo but despite official protestations toPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the next three years saw arepetition of the same scenario.

Reinstitution would mean that both churches begin the cleaningoperation simultaneously.

`We are against being forbidden to enter the church while the Greeksstart cleaning, because that gives the Greeks a `superiority' over theholy site when we are equal partners in its ownership,' a churchofficial said.

`We have complained repeatedly against this breach of the Status Quo,but to no avail,' he added.

The Palestinian Authority response has been that the matter is one forthe two Patriarchates to settle, with Committee president Hanna Amirehdeclaring: `The same arrangements which were reached last year arethe most suitable arrangement for this year too.'

The Armenians have urged the Palestinian Authority to reconsider,pointing out that the annual cleaning the year before had ended with aclash between the Armenians and Greeks, a doubted this was a "mostsuitable arrangement."

Two weeks ago, the most senior Armenian church official in Jerusalem,Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian, met with Amireh and reminded him thatthe Greek cleaning `re-arrangement' was intended for that year only,and that thence it would be `a breach of the centuries old Status Quoand must be cancelled, that the Armenians stand firm on theirhistorical rights and shall never sacrifice their centuries old rightsin favor of the Greeks.'

In a last-ditch attempt to paper over their differences,representatives of the Armenian and Greek Patriarchates met inBethlehem earlier this month with Amireh, but despite Armenianinsistence on a return to the Status Quo and cancellation of theone-off arrangement of 2008, the Greeks refused to give ground, theArmenians say.

Meanwhile, Amireh declared that the decision of the PalestinianAuthority `shall remain unchanged and the Armenians must submit to theAuthority's decision,' warning it will `take all measures againstthose who dare to cause any kind of clash,' this correspondent wastold.

The Armenian reaction was swift. It vociferously objected to Amireh'sdeclaration, calling it `an unprecedented injustice against theArmenian Patriarchate' and wondering about the impartiality of theCommittee.

`The Armenian Patriarchate is seriously concerned about its historicalrights in the Nativity Church,' church sources said, adding that itfeared this year's annual cleaning of the church (scheduled forJanuary 2), `which is as sacred service to us as one of the solemnceremonies in the Holy Places,' may be denied to the Armenians, `whofor centuries have had the right of equally sharing in the Holy Placesof Christendom together with the Greek Orthodox.'

Cleaning days are rarely happy times. Even less so when you've gotto fight over who cleans where and with what.

For years, Armenians and Greeks have been battling over who has theright to polish a step or dust a lamp in one of the world's oldestchurches -- Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, a 1,687-year-oldstructure built to commemorate the supposed birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Jointly run by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the GreekOrthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Roman Catholic Church'sOrder of St. Francis, the church, now a UNESCO World Heritage site,shows that, when it comes to housekeeping, three heads do notnecessarily work together as well as one.

Windows, walls, the roof -- you name it, there's been conflict. InDecember 2011, the scuffles required police intervention when Greek andArmenian priests furiously battled each other with brooms and blowsover a "new" approach to cleaning. (The Franciscans, for their part,get to give "the general cleaning" a miss.)

But, finally, hopes are surfacing that 2013 might prove the year ofa ceasefire.

Last month, after intricate negotiations with the Armenians and Greeksover, yes, a ladder, the Palestinian Authority, which administersBethlehem, announced that a critical breakthrough had been reached:Church of the Nativity cleaners this year will wield their mops andbrooms according to rules laid down when Bethlehem was under Ottomanrule (1517-1917).

Known as the Status Quo, the rules, specifying territorial rights inthe church down to the nitty-gritty, do not exactly read like GoodHousekeeping, but their familiarity reassured the Armenian side.

Nonetheless, the Church of the Nativity's official cleaning day onJanuary 2 had been awaited with trepidation. Some feared fresh funnybusiness from the Greeks, investigative news site Hetq.am reported.

Cleaning the church is "as sacred [a] service to us as one of thesolemn ceremonies in the Holy Places," an unnamed Armenian ApostolicChurch source explained.

But, in the end, with police at the ready, cleaning day reportedlywent off without a hitch.

"Both sides (Greeks and Armenians) were on their best behavior,"an unidentified individual "close to the Armenian church" told aformer Armenian Patriarchate spokesperson, whose story about the riftappeared in the Palestinian News Network.

Yet a further test of the cleaning-conflict ceasefire could lie downthe road.

Although Armenia itself celebrates Christmas on January 6 (the GreekOrthodox Church on January 7), the Armenian Apostolic Church'sJerusalem Patriarchate holds celebrations on January 18, with aprocessional to and service in the Church of the Nativity.

RARELY in this fractious holy city do clerics cede rights for whichthey used to wage holy wars. But from the Abbey of the Dormitionto Jesus's resting place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, thebell-ringers of Jerusalem are abandoning their ropes after a centuryand a half, and installing automated timers instead.

As a result of the Crimean war that Britain, France and the OttomanSultan fought against Russia, a Turkish imperial edict in 1856 lifted aban on Christian bell-ringing in Jerusalem, then part of the Turkishempire. The British were given the honour of erecting the city'sfirst outdoor bell since the crusades, next to the Protestant churchthey had built in 1849. In the decades that followed, European powersjostled to put up the tallest belfry. The Russians and Germans boastedviews of the distant Mediterranean or Dead Sea. Only the Armeniansmodestly kept their gotchnag, a wooden sounding-board they fashionedto circumvent the old Muslim ban. It still hangs in St James's Chapel,inside the old city's Armenian Patriarchate; a sacristan beats itwith a wooden hammer every day at dawn.

But times and technology change. The churches now compete for thelatest mod cons, including manpower-saving bells that chime atthe touch of a button. "The old way was kind of a hassle," sighsAthanasius Macora, a Franciscan friar whose church was the city'sfirst to automate its bells. "You had to be there on time." Moreover,with their bells on auto-pilot, the churches can compete with themosques and the air-siren that Israelis use to call in the Sabbath.

Aesthetes say they can hear a difference between traditionalbell-ringing and today's phoney jingling bells. Eastern ascetics chidethe Catholics for committing the original sin of putting conveniencebefore ancient custom. "They're Europeans," snoots a Greek Orthodoxpriest, attributing the decline of old ritual to a Western weakness forways of the flesh. A Franciscan casuist says there is no theologicalimpediment against an automated bell.

But both he and his Greek Orthodox brother agree that Muslims led thelocal Christians astray by recording and broadcasting their callsto prayer over loudspeakers. "Muezzins used to be forever catchingpneumonia, calling people to prayer in the cold and the rain beforedawn," says George Hintlian, an Armenian historian of the city. "It'seasier now."